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University lecturers and coordinators of business and economics courses around the world are faced with the challenge that beginning students in these courses have heterogeneous entry conditions in terms of personal characteristics. This article focuses on the economic knowledge of German and Japanese beginning students in a business and economics degree programme. The German and Japanese versions of the US-American Test of Economic Literacy were used for the assessment of the economic knowledge of German (N = 901) and Japanese (N = 571) students. The TEL consists of 45 items in two questionnaire versions and is based on 20 globally accepted core standards of economics. The analyses in this paper are based on the total score of all 45 items of the TEL as well as the subscores for the 20 standards. A special focus of this paper is on gender-specific differences in economic knowledge. While gender has a strong effect on economic knowledge in Germany, only a small number of the core standards in Japan exhibit a difference between male and female test takers. The paper concludes by applying interpretative approaches to the different findings in both countries and suggests potential methods for further research on the gender effect in economics education.

Discusses Japan Paper Association's report that paper production has declined due to slow economic recovery. Amount of paper and paperboard production in tons; Impact of coated paper import on domestic production rate.

How much is hegemony and how much is self-determination in the higher education systems in Southeast Asia? This paper argues that while the question of centre and periphery is still relevant to the analysis of international university systems, the analytical frameworks from which it has arisen may lose viability in the long term. Southeast Asian states are making use of higher education to act in ways that will contribute to the altering of their peripheral position in the global economic and political system. While changes in Southeast Asian higher education are closely tied to global markets and follow what sometimes appears to be a dependent pattern of adaptations driven by Western developed economies, the paper argues that there is also a significant amount of resistance. As Southeast Asian countries adapt in ways that help embed economic globalisation within their national landscape, the manner in which the adaptation occurs is more selective, open, and democratic than before. Moreover, while global communication with core (centre) university systems has been more open and transparent, the system is closed to direct intervention from the outside, making hegemony a less plausible explanation for the manner in which the system is reacting within the new global environment of financial interdependency.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine a number of current innovations made by private higher educational institutions in Japan to counter decreased enrollments and financial constraints. Design/methodology/approach: The design of this study is both descriptive and conceptual, based on the latest data available. Additional information was obtained through informal surveys of private institutions. Findings: Efforts on all fronts will be required to resolve some of the more glaring problems facing private higher education in Japan today. While some of the factors contributing to the deterioration of educational standards, such as the economy and demographic changes are beyond the control of the institutions themselves, efforts to staunch the rapid deterioration of educational quality are essential. Renovation in Japanese private university higher education should start with improvements in teaching and faculty development. Private universities must realize that reinvigorating the system will need the cooperation of both faculty members and administrators if universities are to survive in the new economic and social environment. Originality/value: This paper highlights the need for private universities to be the agents of change to address the dire straits of higher education in Japan and it is imperative that new and innovative approaches be implemented. (Contains 9 figures. A list of further reading is included)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the actual conditions of Japanese professors' mobility and to carry out an analysis of the principle on which university researcher mobility is based and of the relationship between mobility and research performance. Design/methodology/approach: Using the Japanese university researcher database which covered job title, research background, research publication performance and so on, the study analyzed the relationship between mobility and the publication rate before/after move. Findings: The paper finds that moves from a research to an education university rarely occur. Moves from an education to a research university, on the other hand, occur with relative frequency. To achieve a move, a high publication rate is required. Post-move publication rate increased greatly for those who moved from an education to a research university and also those who moved from an education university to another education university. Research limitations/implications: In Japan, company employees make decisions depending on expectations of further fulfilment in their companies rather than on mercenary calculations of present best interests. It was discovered that researchers have a desire to move to a better university or one with a better research environment for a brighter future. It is thought that while company employees depend upon the future within the firm, professors depend upon the future within the academic community. Originality/value: Up to now the relationship between mobility and research performance of professors is not necessarily clear in Japan. In this study of the economics field it has become more apparent. (Contains 2 tables, 1 figure and 2 notes.)

Gender effects in large-scale assessments have become an increasingly important research area within and across countries. Yet few studies have linked differences in assessment results of male and female students in higher education to construct-relevant features of the target construct. This paper examines gender effects on students' economic content knowledge with a focus on construct-relevant explanations. Moreover, we compare gender effects cross-nationally between Germany, Japan, and the United States. To assess economic content knowledge of higher education students, we used translated, adapted, and validated versions of the Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE, 4th ed.), an instrument that is commonly used internationally. We found gender effects on test scores in all three countries; effects were larger in Germany and the United States than in Japan. Gender effects were generally more pronounced on the numeracy subscale than on the literacy subscale, that is, male students had a greater edge over female students when items required calculations. In our conclusion, we discuss how numeracy and literacy items may tap different abilities.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss group learning in line with economic perspectives of embeddedness and integration emanating from the work of Karl Polanyi. Polanyi's work defines economy as a necessary interaction among human beings for survival; the economy is considered inextricably linked from broader society and social relations rather than autonomous and driven by self-interest in free market conditions. He specifically outlines three key forms of integration that are crucial to economic stability, involving the notions of reciprocity, redistribution, and exchange. These patterns of integration are described as key elements that co-mingle within and structure contemporary group learning within classrooms.

This study examines generalized trust and trust in institutions in Confucian Asia, covering six countries namely, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam, and one dependent region, Hong Kong. Using data from the 2006 AsiaBarometer Survey, our study affirms the reliability and validity of using a two-item scale to measure generalized trust. Our analysis suggests that due to demographic differences, there are variations in the level of generalized trust of countries in Confucian Asia, despite the fact that these societies share a similar background in Confucian philosophy. The relationships between generalized trust and political trust, and between generalized trust and trust in public institutions, are weak but positive. The positive relationship between generalized trust and trust in economic institutions is only significant for some of the economies, while trust in international institutions has the weakest relationship with generalized trust for all societies. We conclude the paper with research implications.

Major demographic changes around the world. Disproportionate sovereign debt. A shift from North America, Western Europe, and Japan to emerging economies as centers of growth. Unprecedented levels of market risk and volatility. The structure of the global economy is undergoing significant changes. Michael Oyster, managing principal of Fund Evaluation Group, explored this topic with Sam DeRosa-Farag, principal of the investment team at Morgan Creek Capital Management, and Stephen Wood, chief market strategist at Russell Investments.

Discusses the inconsistency between Japanese exploitation of world natural resources and gestures to provide leadership in ecologically innovative technology. Explores Japanese culture, power structure, population trends, environmental ethics, industrialism, and international business practices as they relate to the philosophical face of ecological thinking in Japan. (MCO)

Suggests which perceptions and realities of the complex economic relationship between the United States and Japan are most important. Questions the use of opinion surveys to understand perceptions of U.S. and Japanese citizens about the economic relationship. Discusses characteristics of each nation's economy that inhibit successful economic relations. (DK)

Medical technology is undergoing rapid transformations, and the classifications of medical devices have also expanded greatly; therefore, it is necessary to develop appropriate reimbursement policies and pricing mechanisms in a timely manner. This paper aims to introduce the reimbursement coverage and pricing rules for medical devices in Taiwan. In addition, this paper identifies and evaluates available health technology assessments (HTA) and literature on published websites concerning medical device decision-making processes and pricing systems in South Korea and Japan, which are near Taiwan and have similar reimbursement coverage processes. Reimbursement policy and pricing mechanisms are constantly being revised in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. Recently, all three countries attempted to establish new reimbursement coverage decision-making and pricing rules, adopting a differentiated approach based on the level of evidence required for the appropriated reimbursement in terms of a feasible evaluation mechanism for providing patients with more effective medical devices. This article is expected to contribute to providing references to new reimbursement coverage decision-making and pricing rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the experience of two severe disasters (the Hanshin Awaji Earthquake disaster of 1995 and the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster of 2011), I wish to consider 'subsistence' as human life, existence equaling the basic activities of life, an essential mutual act-like existence economy. In this paper, I pursue a positive development of 'disaster-time economics' as a research object under the larger framework of the formation of a 'moral economy,' as part of a critical process. In this paper, in order that a stricken area and society may aim at the realization of a new methodology about 'creative revival' for newly developing independent research involving the state of the revival fund of a wide sense is carried out. Nevertheless, there is an overall understanding of who, in what areas, and using what methodology, has conducted research in the restoration and revival process, as well as the weak points that tend to hinder the process. There is no research on the rationality and function of public finance expenditures or national sources expenditures. Therefore, in this paper, the term 'disaster-time economy' is newly prepared. From this concept, many activities of the project, service, support, self-efforts etc. of a social and private domain are grasped from a public sphere in connection with the process of maintenance/restoration under the disaster. The feature and subject point of the process are clarified. The market economy order that is going to be produced in this process does the basic work and determines the economic order for another self-subsistence over life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents views of expert Hayato Kato on the paper published on Competition Effects & Industrial Productivity: Lessons from Japanese Industry and discusses the relationship between competition and productivity growth, technological innovations and price-cost margin. He also argues for the interpretation of results needs more careful examination and discusses industry characteristics and exposure to international trades.

Benhabib et al. [(2001) Journal of Economic Theory 96, 40–69] argue that there exists a deflation steady state when the zero lower bound on the nominal interest rate is considered in a Taylor-type monetary policy rule. This paper estimates a medium-scale DSGE model with a deflation steady state for the Japanese economy during the period from 1999 to 2013, when the Bank of Japan conducted a zero interest rate policy and the inflation rate was almost always negative. Although the model exhibits equilibrium indeterminacy around the deflation steady state, a set of specific equilibria is selected by Bayesian methods. According to the estimated model, positive shocks to households' preferences and wage markup, and a negative shock to monetary policy do not necessarily have an inflationary effect, in contrast to a standard model with a targeted-inflation steady state. An economy in the deflation equilibrium could experience unexpected volatility because of sunspot fluctuations, but it turns out that sunspot shocks have a limited effect on Japan's output fluctuations and rather contribute to stabilizing the economy after the global financial crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to inform the reader of the nature of Japanese organize crime ("the Yakuza") and the extent to which it has penetrated and is a powerful force in nearly all facets of Japanese society – with particular focus on the "legitimate" business and financial worlds. The paper also describes in detail the actual harmful effects of Yakuza influence and also provides a cautionary note for foreign business ventures in Japan. Design/methodology/approach: The paper offers an in-depth narrative description based on the author's over 20 years' experience researching the topic along with practical experience gained while working in the business risk mitigation field in Japan and assisting private entities in avoiding underworld entanglements. Findings: The paper demonstrates how the Yakuza remains a potent force with widespread influence in Japan, despite the government's enactment of specific regulations designed to pressure underworld organizations. Research limitations/implications: The paper offers insights into an aspect of Japanese society that receives limited examination, and the information contained in the article is potentially useful to other scholars and the foreign business community as well. The Yakuza are a broad topic, and the author's perspectives are necessarily focused on cases of Yakuza involvement in the legitimate economy and political world rather than the entire panoply of underworld activity. Practical implications: The insights and descriptions of underworld involvement in "legitimate" parts of Japanese society might encourage Japanese authorities to assess why the Yakuza remain entrenched and take appropriate counter measures. Social implications: The paper is potentially of use to foreign business and governmental organizations in better understanding and countering risks and threats posed by the Japanese underworld, both in Japan and beyond its borders. Originality/value: This topic is infrequently covered in any depth in English language sources and seldom if ever by someone with over two decades of practical experience identifying and helping private entities navigate around Yakuza dangers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent trends that affect the U.S. system of industrial relations are examined. The most important of these is internationalization. The U.S. industrial relations system is compared with that of Europe and Japan, and suggestions for improving our competitiveness in international markets are made. (Author/RM)

Discusses online systems and databases that contain information on Japanese business and economic activity. A reference chart provides the name, address, coverage dates, and costs of major online sources. (CLB)

An assessment of the University of the Air of Japan's cost-effectiveness and a forecast of its future based on available data is discussed. Although the current cost per credit is higher than that of conventional universities, changes in communication technology and student characteristics could alter its cost-effectiveness. (Author/MLW)

Import liberalization is one of the most actively debated issues in trade policy. This paper examines how trade policy preferences are related to individual characteristics based on a survey in Japan. Among 10,000 surveyed individuals, people working in non-agricultural sectors, those working in managerial occupations, or those above retirement age tend to favor freer imports. This paper also finds that people who are influenced by the status quo bias are likely to oppose import liberalization even after controlling for each individual's various characteristics, suggesting that neither income compensation nor insurance schemes are sufficient for expanding support for free trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the latest activities of the Japan History of Economic Thought (HET) Society as of June 1984. It cites several activities of four regional branches, namely, the Kanto branch, the Seinan branch, the Tohoku branch and the Kansai branch. The activities were mainly presentation of papers, including the reading by the Kanto branch of "The Discovery of Social Surplus and Marx," by Shigeo Abiko at the Rikkyo University on June 4, 1983.

This paper discusses the post-'Lehman Brothers shock' period of the Japanese foreign direct investment in Australia, and provides an analysis of the types of investment. The analysis begins with the theoretical frameworks that define multinational enterprise (MNE) activity, and foreign direct investment. The way in which 'institutional economics' theory is utilised within the 'eclectic paradigm' is also analysed herein. The 'Lehman Brothers shock', the ensuing market decline, and the subsequent investor indecisiveness have had effects on foreign direct investment in Asia, the EU, and North America (Devos & Giovanoli, 2011). While this situation continued, one particular economic bilateralism, that of Japan and Australia, has remained largely unaffected. The bilateral trade volumes and structure between the two remain unaltered in the aftermath of the 'shock'. This paper details the Japanese foreign direct investment patterns in Australia that were present before the 'Lehman Brothers shock', and continued afterwards (i.e. several-stage type of acquisitions). From the time of the 'shock' until April 2010, there were numerous Japanese acquisitions in Australia (Wallace, 2010). This process has been continuing, as of December 2011, with Japanese MNE Inpex's A$30 billion foreign direct investment in LNG extraction and export project (AAP, 2011; AFP, 2011). Nippon Paper Group's 2009 foreign direct investment in Australia was the ninth biggest Japanese global acquisition in that year (JETRO, 2010), and Mitsubishi Corporation's September 2008 foreign direct investment was the tenth largest (JETRO, 2009). The post-crisis business environment has been beset by uncertainties, and the global mergers and acquisitions had recovered to merely one third of the 2007 levels by the end of 2010 (UNCTAD, 2011). This has been the global trend, the context of the discussion herein. As this paper discusses, the global trend, which UNCTAD describes, does not readily apply to the Japanese foreign direct investment in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assumption that 'local search' constrains the direction of corporate R&D is central in evolutionary perspectives on technological change and competition. In this paper, we propose a network-analytic approach for identifying the evolution of firms' technological positions. The approach (1) permits graphical and quantitative assessments of the extent to which firms' search behavior is locally bounded, and (2) enables firms to be positioned and grouped according to the similarities in their innovative capabilities. The utility of the proposed framework is demonstrated by an analysis of strategic partnering and the evolution of the technological positions of the 10 largest Japanese semiconductor producers from 1982 to 1992. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese economy experienced a ten-year period of deflation between 1995 and 2005, an experience that has been unprecedented among industrial economies since the Great Depression of the 1930s. This paper offers an equilibrium explanation of deflationary policy rooted in the time-inconsistency literature, and shows that central bank policy may be susceptible to a deflation bias under a set of conditions resembling those actually faced by the Bank of Japan. The paper offers general lessons about central bank policy and provides further support for the adoption of an inflation-targeting framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the actual conditions of Japanese professors' mobility and to carry out an analysis of the principle on which university researcher mobility is based and of the relationship between mobility and research performance. Design/methodology/approach – Using the Japanese university researcher database which covered job title, research background, research publication performance and so on, the study analyzed the relationship between mobility and the publication rate before/after move. Findings – The paper finds that moves from a research to an education university rarely occur. Moves from an education to a research university, on the other hand, occur with relative frequency. To achieve a move, a high publication rate is required. Post-move publication rate increased greatly for those who moved from an education to a research university and also those who moved from an education university to another education university. Research limitations/implications – In Japan, company employees make decisions depending on expectations of further fulfilment in their companies rather than on mercenary calculations of present best interests. It was discovered that researchers have a desire to move to a better university or one with a better research environment for a brighter future. It is thought that while company employees depend upon the future within the firm, professors depend upon the future within the academic community. Originality/value – Up to now the relationship between mobility and research performance of professors is not necessarily clear in Japan. In this study of the economics field it has become more apparent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the development of a large-scale (e.g. several thousand km2) high-resolution (e.g. 250 m) distributed rainfall-runoff/flood inundation simulation ( DRR/ FI) model and an economic loss estimation model considering the confidence interval within what is called the Kyoto, Kobe University- SJNK ( KKU-SJNK) model. The DRR/ FI model can simulate rainfall-runoff, dike-breaks, and inland flood inundation processes simultaneously in a seamless/integrated manner with practical accuracy. The river network for the modelling includes most of the catchment main and tributary rivers; thus, DRR/ FI can simulate all of the discharge/water levels of the rivers in the catchment. Data processing was carried out with ArcGIS, which handles large data sets as one sees them with a graphical interface. The coordinate system of the model is appropriately set up; thus, the model can interact with other models such as weather, climate, evacuation, vulnerability and financial models. This also makes it possible to use extensive GIS data from all over the world. Moreover a vulnerability model, what we call the KKU- SJNK model, was developed. The KKU- SJNK model yields the damage ratios and thus economic loss of buildings due to flooding considering the confidence interval. The models are applied to the Yodogawa River catchment (8240 km2), the 7th largest river catchment in Japan, which crosses six prefectures. Though the catchment size is not necessarily very large compared with continental rivers, there is seldom seen such a detailed high-resolution large-scale runoff-inundation model in Japan. To validate the model, data from 1997 and 2009 floods in the Yodogawa River catchment was used. The results of the model exhibited the potential effectiveness of the DRR/ FI + KKU- SJNK model for risk management toward property loss insurance, though it also identified some difficulties. The paper presents these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents abstracts of research on economics. "Effectiveness of Official Daily Foreign Exchange Market Intervention Operations in Japan," by Rasmus Fatum and Michael Hutchison; "Macroeconomic Effects of IMF-Sponsored Programs in Latin America: Output Costs, Program Recidivism, and the Vicious Cycle of Failed Stabilization," by Michael Hutchison and Ilan Noy; "Determinants of Voluntary Bank Disclosure: Evidence From Japanese Shinkin Banks," by Mark Spiegel and Nobuyoshi Yamori.